beginning from their Ierusalem and tentes of Sem. By not marking the Rabbines here we norysh vntruethes in two speciall stories Sems fyrst and Abrahams lykewise by not discirnyng in what kinde of spech Hebrewes make Sem and Abraham eldest where they helde it in trueth for both to be otherwyse Lykewyse Epiphanius not being marked droue some to expositions which him selfe had blamed in Melchisedekians But boubtles he must nedes be holden to hide his minde bringing but one reason that from a false grounde And for reasons agaynst that in him he is strongly resolued that Sem helde the place after geuen to Abrahams seede This dissemblyng in wryters should not seeme strange seeing that euen Poetes in kinges persons set it foorth and Rhetoritians thence gather preceptes for that kinde Homers Agamemnon preparyng a set fielde maketh an oration of going home to try his Souldiers myndes and courage but his reasons are strong agaynst returnyng He vrgeth a goyng home because the warres were long and it was shame to leaue all vnperfect and their shyppe tymber was rotten and their sayles were ragged which poyâ—â—Tres all were contrary to returnyng notwithstanding the multitude tooke holde on his spech quickly and so preparde homewarde that skantly coulde all the wysedome of Nestor perswade them that the King meant otherwyse or the witte of Vlysses stay them from returnyng Hermogenes helde this dealyng to be so common that he thought good to teach from Homer how to do it artistcially But most common was hiding of the minde amongst the Iewes nation touching the Septuagint Eusebius recordeth out of Aristeas that they bound their nation by paine of a cursse that none of them should alter the Greeks Translation Aquilas Symmacâ—us and Theodotion were hated not onely for their heresies but also for theyR TraINslations though they were not of their nation Wherefore Epiphanius had two thinges to bridle him the one that he might not drawe in the same yoke with Heretiques the other that he myght not run into the cursse for altering the Greke I thinke that the Apostle writing to the Hebrewes was also to regard that wyshed not to offend the nation where no neede required And we see that S. Paule was loth to differ from the common maner in reckonyng of the Iudges tyme after a sort 450. yeeres as Iosephus in effect doth which tyme was nothing neare that in proprietie and yet in a dobble reckoning by Oppressours and Reuengers most exactly so much Also S. Luke reckonyng Iacobes familie to be seuentie and fiue soules accordyng to the Sepâ—uagint was loth to breake the agreement or custome of their nation So I thinke that Epiphanius to Greekes durst not disclose the secretes of the Elders And thus much for testimonies of Hebrewes Greekes and Latines touching Melchisedek where for Latines I broughe many of Witenberge becaluse that to an abridgement of Codomans Chronicle there set forth an opinion vnlyke theirs is fastened by one which woulde not haue it searched who the person shoulde be and in a seconde edition is agaynst him selfe drawing men not to mislyke that he should be a litle Cananite king That the simple might knowe this opinion not to come from Witenberge I 〈◊〉 authours thence otherwise minded Vnder the testimonies and vpon some discourses many reasons were brought which by the matter without mans countenaunce seeme to stande each one But least by them selues and seuerall they shew not all their strength or beyng scatttred cannot be so well vewed nor make so good a shew To conclude this cause I thinke it good to bring them togyther and to strengthen them yf neede be And fyrst to take away that which most seemeth to hinder the mistaking of the Apostles wordes of being without Father without Mother that I confidently affyrme to be spoken onely by relation to Gen. 14. without any condemning of such as from other places affyrme who in trueth Melchisedek was Now that Moses meant that Sem shoulde be knowen to be that King and the Apostle lykewyse the matter it selfe cryeth out aloude For Moses speaking of Sem blessed front Noah by these wordes Blessed be the God of SEM and of Chanaan cursed vpon Chams badnes and to be his seruaunt also of Iapheth to fetch religion from SEMS house First sheweth how the cursse came in that Babel was buylt rebellious Nemrod of Chams race and the youngest brother erecting a tyranny and setting forwarde a worke for men to make them selues a Shem that is a Name He reckoneth the Languages that came vpon that worke wherewith they that were punished were scattered from the presence of God of which we shoulde not fayne any to holde Religion nor by their owne abilitie to recouer Grace nor without hearyng of the worde to be made faythfull nor to affyrme of special preaching to them without warrant from Scripture Now as for blessed Sem Moses returneth to his strory telleth of his lyne to Abraham reckoneth how long they all lyued omitteth mention of death Gen. 11. far otherwyse then he dealt Gen. 5. casteth Sem to be aliue very long after Abrahams calling and lykewyse for a good whyle Arphaxad and Selah men borne before the confusion of Tongues Heber also that forwarned it longest of all but none borne after Babel as Peleg Regu Sarug Nachor Terah and expressely mentioneth Terahs death that fell to Idolatrie that we should consider him dead before the Promyse as the wrath vpon the Towre-buylding yea and vpon the Fathers borne after vntyll Abraham that none of them lyued to see the Blessing continued Then sheweth how Abraham called to lâ—aue his Countrey going to Chanaan going to Egypt returnyng to Chanaan recoueryng his Lot partaker of the blessing killing of the king of Elam was after this blessed of Melchisedek representyng CHRIST and saying Blessed be Abraham to El Elion and blessed be the God of Abraham Doth not the golden chayne of the story thus setled and of the phrase alyke continued drawe Sem hither who as he receyued the Blessing from Noah deliuereth it vnto Abraham Shoulde we thinke that in so great a matter Sem shoulde haue a blessing and lyue obscurely all his lyfe and some vpstart of Families cursed shoulde pronounce it vpon Abraham Whyle Libanus beareth Snow and Iordans waters flowe that wyll not stande I trow Such a stately matter falleth not out without a prophecie If Adams fall beyng so speedy yet had with a warnyng a kinde of foretellyng If the Floodde at Noahs byrth was closely foretolde and also the Languages confounded vpon Cham chursed through his families I woulde also thinke that the blessing of Abraham should not be a late tolde thing but depende vpon auncient speches As the Lordes workes are knowen to him of eternitie so it is vsuall in his worde that he sheweth thinges before they aryse and doth nothyng but that he telleth his seruauntes the Prophetes In this kinde I assure my selfe that Moses purposedly continueth the blessing
yf it myght be receiued it woulde shake the certainty of Scripture yet needefull at this day is the confuting of him For I haue heard Learned men more then one obiect earnestly this aucttoritie of Epiphanius litle considering how thereby the authoritie of the scripture copies should perish wholly He they shalbe answered both at once if they wyll start to no further skapes then Epâ—phanius him selfe would like off that is yf they ioyne not with Melchisedekians and Hierax in the exposition of the wordes without father without mother I wyll graunt Epiphanius that the tymes make sure the cause and agree with his dealyng that he coulde bring no other reason agaynst it that Sem shoulde be Melchisedek but from the Greeke accompt of tyme. Yet I must needes tell him that he as other natiue Greekes hath hindered y e trueth exceedingly and wrought great annoyance to Religion in vrging the Greeke translation for proprietie where it dallieth for a ground against the grounde for trueth where touching sadde meanyng it is further of then any Heathen woulde or coulde lightly misse The Hebrew text hath Gods aucthoritie and sad propriety it standeth sure styll and of the wysest was alwayes holden true Of it most sensible reasons may be rendred amongst them whose senses by vse are made fit to iudge though it seeme strange at the first Variety hath not been founde in the Hebrew text nor Hebrew commentaries since Ezras time whereas nothing is more vnconstant then the sundry copies of the Greekes and theyr citations in the Greeke Doctors Now in the Hebrew text it appeareth that Sem who lyued sixe hundreth yeeres was but about fiue hundreth and thirtie when Abraham met Melchisedek and therefore Epiphanius hath nothyng for his defence And the more is he to be blamed in that by some copies he found from Sems birth to Abrahams warres but sixe hundreth twentie and nine yeres which varietie might haue hardened him to haue sought for y e original in true plainnes I thinke he might haue found in some Greeke translations or commentaries the letter phi which standeth for fiue hundreth in stead of chi that he citeth and woulde make sixe hundreth yeeres and so the Hebrew aye was But to conclude all Europe where Vniuersities haue had Hebrew and all our Bibles in these west partes that I haue seene Englysh Latine Italian Spanishe French Duch. c. condemne Epiphanius for this poynt as going about to shake the Hebrew text the strongest post of Diuine buylding In the same blame must they be wrapped that vse for their defence the authoritie and testimony of his conclusion And thus much for turnyng agaynst hym that which he chiefly leaned vpon in his outward shew Now that Melchisedek is not a Chanaanite two poynts are handled therein by S. Augustine The one that no Chanaanite coulde be greater then Abraham An other that Abraham coulde not be the father of many nations to reuiue fayth decayed yf a Chanaanite helde it styll of these two neyther wyll suffer other to fall but eyther wilbe sure And for their obiection that make the superioritie to stand in the blessing * that is alwayes doubtles that the rule of blessing is aboue them which are blest But here the worthynes of the person is considered whereby the blessing from his mouth was regarded Yea and Abraham him selfe was a sacrificer and therein coulde not be inferiour to any Cananite for office Moreouer what warrant should Abraham haue to acknowledge a Chananite of a nation cursed his superiour They whose tongues were confounded also lost religion by the wrath of God But the Chananites had seuerall Dialectes therefore they all had lost religion neyther was the name of the One true God knowen to them In deede Eusebius recordeth 1. Praep their religion as somewhat sounding towardes a voyce of good but in trueth bad to them selues For whereas God is called in Sems house â—l Elion the Chananites had seuerall Gods one called El an other called Elion as often hearing somewhat of Melchisedek who was sacrificer to God knowne by the termes El and Elion But they not holding the trueth and being rather scattered from the face of the presence of God went on eche one after their owne goddes wherefore I can not see how agaynst a generall rule one of a cursed Nation and strange language in the lyfe of Sem shoulde excell Abraham and Sem. And thus much for the thirde opinion wherein also I was constrayned beside the naturall methode to answere the obiections agaynst the fourth Now the fourth is that of the Hebrewes which holde it doubtles the learned of them who cast Sem to be yet then alyue that Melchisedek can be no other but Sem. For the better satisfiyng of all I wyll name here some of the chiefe Authours with their testimonies Syracides sayth that Seth and Sem were most glorious amongst men For Setâ— it is manifest in that all men are Num. 24. called the sonnes of Seth But for Sem I see not how he shoulde be manifest in such glory but in the person of Melchisedek And vnlesse he were a Prophet I see not howe he shoulde excell nor yet how he may be counted a Prophet but in the blessing of Abraham So Seder Olam Rabba Cha. 21. reckoning Sem in the catalog of olde Prophetes vsed Melchisedeks story for a profe Such Hebrewes as I haue that handle that case recorde not onely their owne iudgement but also the iudgement of others agreeing thereunto that Sem was thought to be Melchisedek R. Bochai is peremtorie in that Fol. 23. col 2. line 42. and there in a kinde of Rabbinical descantyng vpon the phrase sheweth how Abraham was named by him heyre of the worlde from the attributes spoken of God in the wordes Blessed be Abraham to El. Elion the Mightie the Hygh possessor of heauen and earth There also he handleth Thamars case that sentence was geuen by Iudah vpon her to be brent because she was so they the Rabbines talke Melchisedeks or Sems daughter and burning was the punishment of the sacrificers daughters in suche faultes Marten Luther in sadnes confuteth that reckonyng howe long before Melchisedek was dead and shewyng that the tyme wyll not agree As I thinke they noorished that tale to teach their babes to weigh Melchisedekes case and no further thought that Sem shoulde be her father in deede For we shoulde not soone imagine them to be senselesse from whose kind of study learning the new Testament bringeth many speches in them yet to be founde commonly and in no other writers though touching their fables we haue a warning Salomoh Iarchi handleth the cause of this blessing whose wordes be these vpon Melchisedek Gen. 14. He in Midras Hagadah is Sem the sonne of Noah and he brought forth bread and wine as vnto men wearie in battell and he shewed the other that his hart was not styrred agaynst him for killing his Children
them And thus much for the terme Iustice conteyned in Sedek part of the Name Melchi-Sedek whereunto also I drew Religion as a chiefe spice vnder Justice Now for the place SALEM that helpeth not a lytle to know who the person is The worde SALEM betokeneth Peace and so the holy Ghost noteth the power of the worde Heb. 7. Now it was not a short continuance of peace that could make a famous name of peace wherefore long before Abrahams tyme it shoulde seeme to haue had quietnes But it wyll not soone agree with likelyhood that cursed Chanaans brood shoulde excell all in that blessing For the knowledge and loue of Christ onely gardeth men in a continuall peace which the buylders of Babel hauing once despised coulde neuer finde in their families vntyll Christ came Onely some fewe Proselytes yeelded vnto Abrahams religion As for the wicked Esay maketh them as a Sea tossed which casteth vp myre and clay And most liuely doth Daniel describe the enemies of the Iewes while they were the high Sainctes being as foure beastes commyng out of a Sea tossed with foure wyndes Also agaynst the Heathen Christians from out of the Sea ariseth Romes power as both Greekes and olde Romistes confidently expound it So for a long time more then the thyrde part of time since time was we haue a determination for prophane kingdomes how farre they are from such a state as God woulde call peace In all ages we see the state of peace and warre to be alyke The olde Serpent from Adam Gen. 3. to Iohn Apo. 12. executeth the same hatred that Salem properly can be no place but where God geueth a speciall blessing Expounders at Sichem buylt a Salem and make it Melchisedeks citie where Iacob becommeth salem that is safe not to Salem or Peace-Towne Gen 33 18. The warres made in Abrahams tyme and the leagues of men there teach vs to examine this story When the kinges of Elam Synear Ellasar and Goym fought with the kinges of Sodom Gomorra Adama Seboim and Bela the king of Salem had nothing to do with the warres nor with the twelue yeeres subiection nor with their rebellion As Abraham was in league with Mamre Eshcol and Aner so much rather than Melchisedek woulde haue been yf he had been of kinred When the foure kinges stroke Rephaim Zuzim Emim Chorim and En-Mispat to the playne of Pharan and the Emori in Chazazon-Thamar Woulde they haue suffered Salem so neare to be in peace but for some greater cause then woulde soone befall a Chanaanite to be in Wherefore the short Hebrew Commentary called An exposition of euery hard worde in that place calleth Melchisedek Sem induced not onely by aucthorities but also by the matter Whereas Chanaan by the cursse shoulde serue Sem and doubtles Sem woulde not omit the open vantage of superioritie it may well be that for some encrochment vpon the possessions of Sems families the first contention did arise Whereupon the king of Elam as the eldest house of Sem shoulde reuenge his younger cosens quarell That Sem shoulde settle in Salem it is by many reasons most lykely for some his posteritie and for his breathren Epiphanius so farre disputeth of Sems sonnes in such sort to haue been there but weeried thence by Chanaanites encrochment that there was a ciuill right and not onely the sole lordshyp of God in geuing Chanaan to Abraham And R. Abra Ben Isaak thinketh that Iacob the dweller in Tentes learned religion from the tentes of Sem Heber Now for Sems breathren the Greekes beare memory of Iapheth Anchiale a daughter of Iapheth is by Eustathius recorded to haue buylt the towne of that name As for Cham the lande of Egypt is expressely named of him Now for the middle brother the middle space betwixt both is the fittest The middle Seas most fitly seruing such vse of their lyfe And yf the first dwellinges by any partition from Noah were appoynted they gesse well which gesse at this partition for the first dwelling to be from Noahs appoyntment Abraham Ben Perizol a Iew in his Cosmographie foloweth Christians not only for placyng of Sem at Salem or for Cham of whose place none doubt But also for Iapheth to be setled where we place Iapheths sonnes We haue good reason because Virgil Ouid and Horace from Hesiodus and other ancient Greekes such as Eustathius afterwards foloweth vpon Homer making Iapheth one of the Gyantes in whose tyme they warred agaynst heauen Also Lucian before him making Iapheth the eldest of all folke because these carry the memory of Iapheth we haue good reason to place him in those countreys whence we came Horeouer Egyptians made a God of Ammon so Ch-am in Greeke may be written where Cheth is in many names as in Eue for Cheue vnpronounced and the Greeke termination obserued That religiō doth credite y e narratiō As that of our ancestors who were much better taught by Iapheth to auoyde Idolatry and to tearme hym one that had been in the Gyantes age and neuer to make a God of him or as that of the Fable which telleth that Prometheus the sonne of Iapheth made men of the slyme of the earth which thing came from his spech wherin he taught how God made Adam and Eue a pandora full of al goodly vertues that Heathen Charites Pallas and Venus coulde not be so well imagined of as Eue was Goodly in deede It is vsuall in all kinde of writers to attribute the worke vnto the narration So Christ was crucified before the Galathians not by the Souldiers of Cittim or Italy that with nayles and speare wrought the forespoken tyranny but by the tongue of the Disciples So Prometheus tongue made men And yf we from fables are called somewhat to a trueth for our ancetour shall not a more certayne recorde for the place of Sem fit for the situation fit for religon helde so continually of his posteritie moue vs to folowe ancient plainnes Or coulde there be any reason why Melchisedeks story shoulde be hid vntyll the Apostles tyme to haue an other meanyng afterwardes then euer it had before that the Apostles shoulde not be able to teach the olde sayth but by a new meaning in the story which Iewes neuer did neuer wyll lyke of The Apostles woulde haue no such reuerence geuen to their wordes as to bryng them to a meaning vnheard of by the Apostles nation Furthermore yf Mount Sion be so fayre in situation and the glory of all the earth where Isaak was offered where Salomons care buylt the first Temple where Cyrus decree buylt the seconde Temple where Christ the true Temple powred out the waters of lyfe shoulde we thinke that Sem being a Prophet woulde not enquire from what place the Lawe and the worde of Iehouah should come Nay it is expressely manifested and obserued by the very Iewes that the place whence the
described by an adiunct of his seruant and after his name the God of Sem it cannot stande with reason that than Sem being alyue an other and not Sem should haue the highest place in worshyp of the most High the God of Sem. A learned Hebrew woulde not despise this reason also that God in Moses is called in Hebrew the Shem that is Name the great and the terrible And so the Iewes to this day call God the Name Wherefore the man also called Name or Shem was fittest for this name and honour to be knowen by a generall name Noah foreseeing and in his name foretelling how in tyme he shoulde not be named but by a generall name IVST-King sacrificer to the great tirrible Name Sem the Father of our Lord Sem of whom yet lyuing God would be named the God of Sem Sem the Prophet Sem who doubtles was a religious sacrificer Sem the fyrst King Sem Sem only was then greater then Abraham the Patriarch of whom being dead God is named the God of Abraham greater then Abraham the Prophet the buylder of Alters the sacrificer of Isaak and the Prince of God Sem in euery degree is before him But now we view Sacrificehood Abraham was the sonne of an Idolatrer once but none of Sems fathers worshypped strange Goddes Also his lyfe being without recorde of blemishe he was fittest to vse the highest office The other is a most high honour that he had fathers in order in such honour yet his two breathren matched him in that But with godlynes to winne the prerogatiue from his elder brother to haue the faythfull discent vntyll his God came in the fleshe this was an vnspeakeable glory as that all the worlde should looke vnto his Tentes But as The VVorde comming in the flesh came vnto his owne but his owne receyued hym not So Sem whom Chanaan shoulde serue was to Chanaan vnknowen who was his father or his mother when was the beginning of his dayes or the ende of his life The men of the worlde then without knowledge of God of the creation of the beginnyng of the continuing of man coulde not in their fables come neare the antiquitie of Sems byrth A lytle weigh their wayes They who replenished Attens pleade that there the earth did first yeelde vp Men. Wise Socrates in his tyme was no wyser then so to thinke The Riuers Ladon and Iaon in Moraea may well be thought memorialles in name of Laud or Lud and Iauan Eustathius from Greekes recordeth that there they sayde men fyrst sprang Herodotus telleth a chyldysh tale of Chyldren that heard no voyce of men who were kept so that they myght be marked what language they woulde speake Bek they first spake in Egypt it was done and the king learned that Bek in the Phrygian language was Bread And thereupon a conclusion was gathered that the Phrygians were the most ancient people Seeing Englyshmen bake Bread they myght as well make vs eldest Trogus Pompeius wrote of a contention betwixt Egyptians and Sythians for ancienty full of babyshnesse The Ethiopians of Cush in Diodorus Siculus thought that all the earth beyng couered once with water the Sunne did fyrst dry vp theyr Countrey and men out of the Mudde fyrst bred there And in Arabia Alilat is their God as Herodotus recordeth he seemeth to be Chauila or Euila the sonne of Cush For that cause I thynke the Septuagint translated the name Euilat putting a t. to the worde that Grammer neyther required nor permitted But they would teach the Heathen of their forged Goddes Phayt or Phut was holden to be Phaeton begotten by the Sunne and as the hot Lybea was an intemperate Zone so they faine that he droue the Charot of the Sunnes lampe out of course Anubis in Egypt of Anum or Anub Chams nephew was their God And commonly it was holden that the earth bare Iapheth Cham and the buylders against Heauen Such was their blyndnes Moses knowyng very well how the Gods of the Heathen and their most ancient monumentes of Riuers Mountaynes Towers Countreys Goddes and Fables sauing some few of Adam skant matched Sems first yeres describeth Sem keeping his name close in such sort as Chanaan vnderstoode his case For in him Melchisedek hath as the Apostle doth teach vs to marke no beginning of dayes nor ende of lyfe How simply it is no wonder for a man to be in Scripture for the open phrase without father without mother without beginnyng of dayes without ende of lyfe So are Pilate and Tiberius Annas and Cayphas whose name doth rot and they lie in sorrow And it is rather a basenes then an honour simply to be so recorded But when a man well knowen as a priuate man is sodenly in the style of the story set downe as a stranger full of royall maiesty by a new name vnknowen to them that lyued about him and to such as read his story vnlesse it be some Angel one of a thousande as Elihu tearmeth godly Preachers the case of such a man is to be considered and is lyke to conteyne long speech and hard Such is the case of Sem. What Infidel would beleeue that Sem borne before the Deluge weakened a quarter of mans former age by it yet by worshypping EL ELION kept a Language originall kept almost only true religion sawe mens age agayne halfed saw not three ages as Nestor in Homer but ten ages in the Male line what infidell would thinke that in the tenth age Sem shoulde seale the blessing to Abraham Moses full of the most wyse spirite coulde both mocke the mockers and make the same wordes seene to the Godly whyter then the Snowe of any Vlisses eloquence He doth not onely shew how much or rather how nothing the wicked vnderstoode that then were alyue or the wicked would that should reade his booke afterwardes but also most liuely teacheth the Godly the summe of the Gospell in that the blessing of the blessed God of Sem is in Sems lyfe geued to Abraham in whose Seede not seedes but seede as of one who is CHRIST all Families of the earth should be blessed So the doctrine of lyfe euerlasting is opened that Christ that seede of Abraham after the flesh is the God of Sem after the spirite of sanctification This was the counsell of the Apostle wryting to the Hebrewes to shew how the Sonne was made heyre of all by whom God made the worlde Who in Esa 4. beyng Zemach Iehouah to glory a bright spring and Iehouah that washeth away the vncleannes of the daughters of Sion Being in Exod. the Angel that hath within him the name of God Being in Genesis Elohim that by speaking made and vpholdeth all Being Psal 110. the Lord of Dauid sitting on the right hande of God and an eternall sacrificer after the order of Melcisedek is honoured by the Apostle with most goodly speches as fayrer then